Spills of insulating liquids for transformers and capacitors on many surfaces often cannot be seen readily by the eye. The presence and boundaries of a spill have typically been determined by applying costly and time-consuming statistical sampling procedures. Furthermore, more sampling is required for cleanup completeness inspections.
For spill clean-up efforts, sophisticated laboratory equipment is either brought to the spill site for sampling or the samples are sent to a central laboratory. In the first case, use of portable gas chromatograph requires special operator training. In the second case, the sample's trip to the laboratory takes time. Often the spill is required to be cleaned up before any analytical results can be returned from the lab resulting in costly over clean-up or missed spots.
The cleanup of spills of insulating liquids for transformers and capacitors would be better accomplished through a system which provides the ability to easily and concisely map the boundaries of a spill occurring on surfaces such as asphalt, concrete, grass and dirt and wet surfaces. Moreover, a system providing a real-time picture monitor of cleanup efforts could facilitate useful information gathering. Furthermore, a system which does not require time consuming sampling procedures during the initial cleanup inspections could provide for more efficient and thorough spill cleanup operations. Therefore, there is a need for a real-time, user friendly system for distinguishing the spill from the nonspill area.
Accordingly, in an attempt to achieve the above listed objects, a real-time monitor system has been developed which provides an operator the ability to see fluorescent emissions from a spill in order to map out its boundaries. An excitation source lamp is used to optically induce fluorescent emissions by the insulating liquids. The boundaries of the spill are mapped by placement of markers according to detected emissions made visible to a viewer on a video display monitor. The system operates so that a first and second detector generate images which may be received by a first monitor and/or second monitor.
The real-time monitor system described above experiences interference of the emission signals in that their detection is influenced by the sun's radiation. A mobile box style sun block has been used for shielding the UV radiation from the sun for daytime operation. Because a sun block shield or tent is cumbersome, the system does not allow the user to easily and quickly map the spill. Furthermore, the system of the prior art does not include means for intensifying and gating the fluorescent emissions of the spill contents necessary to avoid this solar interference.